The sky over Nalus shifted.
Clouds parted slowly, like the breath of gods, revealing a sun newly caught between early summer and the edge of autumn. The city had expanded outward like the blooming of a mechanical flower. From the centre of the Great Observatory, roads now spread in spokes, paved with levelled stone and copper inlays that faintly glinted in sunlight.
Jiang Fan observed it all in silence.
A bird's-eye simulation revealed more than just buildings. It revealed ambition.
Nalus was no longer just a city.
It was a symbol—a convergence point, where all other settlements began to orbit, willingly or reluctantly.
On the Arkhe plains, the great forges now processed bronze in mass quantities. Artisans devised pulleys, smelters, wheels not just for carts but for axle drives—primitive, but with potential.
In the riverlands of the Noma, irrigation and canal locks created artificial ponds and redirected currents. Crops thrived—barley, rice, and a new type of hybrid maize enhanced by Jiang Fan's agricultural deduction.
And in the stony cliffs of the Khar, philosophers and builders carved the first vaults—cavernous structures that could survive earthquakes and house generations of knowledge.
Civilization… was evolving.
[New Phase Achieved: Early Kingdom Unification]
[Planetary Governance Prototype: Council of Nine]
[Governance Type: Technocratic Confederation (Evolving...)]
[Unlocking New Deduction Priorities: Resource Standardization, Currency Systems, Law Protocols]
[Progress Toward Kingdom Era: 65%]
And yet, beneath the shining surface of order…
Shadows formed.
It began with whispers.
Clay tablets in the Nalus Archive were discovered to contain forged measurements. Grain stores reported inconsistent records. Builders reported tools missing. And several architects in the southern expansion zones had gone silent.
At first, Jiang Fan thought it was a bug in the data stream.
But the System confirmed it plainly.
[Alert: Emerging Internal Faction Identified]
[Codename: "Ash Ring" – Objective: Technological Monopolization & Genetic Hierarchy Control]
[Risk Level: Medium-High (Potential for Civil Disruption in 2.4 Years Simulation Time)]
Jiang Fan leaned back in his chair, processing the implications.
It made sense.
Progress begets power. And power… breeds those who want to keep it.
The Ash Ring was no mere rebellion. It was composed of early engineers, scribes, and military tacticians who had realized technology was a godlike force in this world—and wanted to hoard it.
They had begun selective education, disinformation campaigns, and experiments on tribal lineage to find "optimal bloodlines."
Jiang Fan's eyes darkened.
"They're trying to create a class of engineered rulers," he whispered.
A techno-cult.
He pulled up the Deduction Interface.
"Simulate counter-faction: A decentralized system of scientific transparency, open forums, and merit-based schools. Call it the Enlightened Chain."
"Introduce a mentorship concept: Knowledge must be passed, not hidden."
"Embed symbols, rituals, and community recognition around sharing and collective growth."
[Deduction Confirmed. Counter-faction "Enlightened Chain" introduced. Simulation progressing…]
Within weeks, changes began to manifest.
Public squares now included knowledge duels—not to defeat one another, but to solve challenges in front of crowds. The more transparent one's discoveries, the greater their influence.
The Ash Ring found themselves increasingly isolated.
Some members turned.
Others grew desperate.
In a dim chamber beneath the city's southern reservoir, an intercepted clay tablet was discovered:
"When the Chain grows too long, it must be melted down. A spark is coming. The dam is ready."
Jiang Fan's eyes widened.
He dove into the city infrastructure model. There it was.
The South Nalus Dam—an early hydroengineering marvel, essential for controlling flooding, regulating river currents, and powering the first water wheels used in copper refinement.
If destroyed… tens of thousands would drown. Progress would stall.
Trust would die.
And the Ash Ring would rise from the wreckage.
[Emergency Intervention Protocol: Available]
[Option 1: Reveal the Ash Ring publicly. Risk mass panic, but ensure justice.]
[Option 2: Infiltrate and redirect. Plant false messages, drain their influence silently.]
[Option 3: Use the Observatory Dome to display a predictive simulation of the dam's failure to the people. Let the public react.]
Jiang Fan hesitated.
He didn't want to become a tyrant.
Nor did he want to expose too much power—like being a god peering through the skies.
He exhaled.
Then chose Option 3.
That night, as the sky grew deep indigo, the Great Observatory flickered to life.
Instead of stars, the dome projected visions—an animated model showing how the dam, if tampered with, would burst. The floodwaters were shown rushing through Nalus, sweeping away homes, temples, scrolls, and even the walls of the Archives.
No words were spoken.
No names were named.
Just truth.
Raw. Unfiltered. Possible.
And as the image faded, silence blanketed the city.
Then—one by one—elders, students, artisans, and even military scouts stepped forward to guard the dam.
Voluntarily.
The Ash Ring's plan failed.
Most of its members were arrested by their own people before Jiang Fan had to lift a finger.
A few escaped.
But for now, the light held.
[Civil Threat Resolved. Trust Index: +45%. Citizen Awareness: Elevated. System Authority Increased.]
[Planetary Simulation Note: Emergent Psychological Resistance to "Godlike Control" detected in 0.3% population. Seeded Concept: "Silent Watcher"]
Jiang Fan frowned.
Even this small victory had seeded something new.
A creeping idea that something or someone was watching from the skies.
He rubbed his temples.
They were growing too fast. Learning too much.
And yet… it thrilled him.
Because beneath the tension, there was growth.
He opened a subwindow.
Beneath the Council Hall of Nalus, the first minting workshop had begun testing alloys for currency.
Another city on the eastern hills had begun experimenting with an early optical lens array—too primitive for lasers, but potentially usable in a primitive telescope.
And one of the Enlightened Chain's youngest scholars had just published a paper suggesting the idea of "coded messages using carved patterns on discs"—a precursor to data storage.
Jiang Fan smiled.
"From ashes," he whispered, "you rise."
And somewhere deep inside his simulated world, beneath growing temples and glowing gears, a planet dreamed forward.